1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a method, system and program product for delayed disconnection of a client from a server. Specifically, the present invention allows disconnection of a client from a server to be delayed without unnecessarily consuming system resources.
2. Related Art
As the use of the Internet becomes more pervasive, computer users are increasingly relying on the World Wide Web as a source of information. For example, if a user desires a certain type of information, he/she can access and navigate about the pages of a website from the comfort of his/her own personal computer. One particular form of web-based information exchange that has gained widespread popularity is web portal pages. In general, web portal pages provide a mechanism for a user to receive targeted and personalized content. Typically, a portal page includes sections or visual portlets that each contain particular portal content that is selected and formatted according to a user's preferences. For example, a user could establish his/her own portal page that has sections for news, weather and sports. When the portal page is requested, a portal program on the server would obtain the desired content from the appropriate content providers. Once obtained, the portal content would be aggregated, and then displayed in the appropriate sections as a web portal page. This technology has lead to the explosion of personalized “home” pages for individual web users.
In accessing web pages, a user will typically establish a “session” with a host or server application through a browser. Using the browser, the user will issue a request for a specific web page. The server will then generate and deliver the requested web page to the browser for the user to view. With today's technology it is possible for the user to close the browser or navigate away from the server without disconnecting the session therewith. Delayed disconnection can be advantageous where the user wishes to maintain the session for subsequent browsing. Unfortunately, delayed disconnection can also tie up system resources, and in some cases, prevent the user from logging in again until the session times out after a predetermined period of time (e.g., 30 minutes). The previous solution to this problem was to use Javascript to open a new window upon the browser's “termination event” (e.g., whenever the browser is closed, or leaves a web page). The new window is used to check whether the browser has closed. If so, the new window executes a command to terminate the session. Currently, however, this approach only works with the Internet Explorer 6 web browser. Moreover, it requires a new window to be opened whenever the browser closes or navigates to a new web page. These are both serious limitations since a large number of people utilize different browsers, and pop-up windows are a significant annoyance.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for a method, system and program product for delayed disconnection of a client from a server upon browser close. Specifically, a need exists for a connection between a client and a server to be terminated in a delayed fashion without unnecessarily consuming system resources, or generating a pop-up window.